1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates methods and apparatus for coring hair follicle portions for the purpose of transplantation into areas where improved hair growth is desired.
2. State of the Art
A hair follicle is a tiny tubular structure in the skin, contiguous with the top skin layer, or epidermis, that includes a tubular canal, a bulb (or vestibule) within the dermis skin layer, one or more hair shafts, a sheath that surrounds the lower part (root) of the hair shaft(s), the sebaceous (oil) gland, and the muscle anchored to the follicle's side wall. Autologous hair transplants remove the patient's own hair follicles (or portions thereof) from one or more donor area(s) where there is relatively thick hair growth. The removed hair follicles (or portions thereof) are then implanted to one or more area(s) where improved hair growth is desired.
The traditional method for removing hair follicles in autologous hair transplants removes a patch of skin from the donor area, which is typically located in the back of the patient's head. The patch is selected so as to contain a plurality of hair follicles where each hair follicle consists, in the majority of cases, of a root plus one to three hairs. The patch is placed on ice to maintain it cool and hydrated in saline so as to not kill tissue. The patch is subsequently placed under a microscope where a technician slices and dissects individual hair follicles from the patch. Each discrete hair follicle is then implanted in an area of the head where hair growth is desired. The problems with this technique include scaring (i.e., the skin area where the patch is removed scars), and pain (i.e., removal of the patch is painful). Moreover, the area where the patch of skin was removed is devoid of hair and thus is cosmetically unappealing.
A new technique cores out hair follicle units directly from the donor area. This technique is advantageous because it is less painful than the patch removal technique and the scar that may form is very small and difficult to see. The hair follicle unit consists of the hair shaft, sheath, and bulb of an individual hair follicle structure. A coring device is placed around groups of one to four hairs removing an average of 50 percent of the intact hair follicular units of the group. Therefore, an average of 50 percent of the hair follicular units of the group is left behind to grow. Additionally, only 50-60 percent of the hair follicle units in the donor area are selected for coring, with the remaining percentage of hair follicle units left alone with no intervention. In this manner, any decrease in the visible density of hair in the donor area is virtually undetectable to the naked eye, which makes this new technique more cosmetically appealing than the patch removal technique. The problem with this technique is that it is very time consuming as well as very demanding on the physician. The tool normally used to core out the groups of hair follicle units is a hollow coring needle, typically between 0.5 and 2.0 mm in diameter, held by a pin vice handle. The physician first cuts the patient's hair in the donor area to the point where the hair is less than 2 mm long, and then the hollow coring needle is placed over a group of hair follicle units and manually rotated by finger movements while pressing gently downward. The manual rotation is performed in a repeating clockwise and counterclockwise manner until the group of hair follicle units is separated from the surrounding skin. This coring process is repeated for a multitude of hair follicle unit groups. Periodically, the cored-out hair follicle unit groups are removed from the head with forceps and placed in a saline solution on ice. The hair follicle unit groups are then transplanted in the usual manner. It is not unusual for the patient to require transplantation of 1,200 or more hair follicle units over a prolonged period of time, which may be six hours or more. Practitioners of this technique complain that the coring process is difficult on the fingers over this prolonged period of time and can lead to discomfort, fatigue stress and injury, including carpel tunnel syndrome and the like. Furthermore, the coring needles usually last for the coring of only 500 to 700 individual hair follicles before becoming dull. Lastly, the coring needles as well as the pin vice handle are required to be sterilized for each use.